MechWarrior: Online

Sign up and reserve your pilot name! COMPLETELY Free-to-play, build around Crytek 2 engine. Probably the most faithful-to-canon MechWarrior title ever released and the devs are absolutely totally nuts about the game. Imagine the largest persistent gamespace you can with a faithful, interactive dev team to implement live events, etc. BattleTech lore holds its own against the richest, most detailed of any movie or game franchise.

One of the coolest things about this franchise is how IMMERSIVE it is, and how seriously players take their loyalty to factions. You thought republic vs empire or horde vs alliance was deep? Think again.

I was a master of MechWarrior with a joystick in MechWarrior 3 when I was a kid, unless they have really improved the precision of where you have to target in order to destroy an actuator. Looks like Razer is working on a joystick for the game as well, here is hoping it actually comes out in time.

Congrats to the 8 fools who made the ignore list, your ignorance knows no bounds, bravo!

Honestly... I'm not liking what I'm seeing here. There's nothing in this package that makes me want to put money into the game sight-unseen.

There's plenty but you have to have a real deep knowledge of the series to "get it" from the developer blogs. Founder Mechs are basically end-game mechs, meaning you instantly skip the "grind" of upgrading said mech. Add in the in-game currency and lifetime XP/C-bill boost and its quite frankly a pretty sleek deal.

Kind of pissed they didn't say anything about legendary package until launch, I only budgeted for the $60 one.

I'm definitely going to try the game but I just don't see myself spending money on it. Especially not that pre-pay early access thing.

Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.

I guess this is Piranha's way of generating some early revenue for the game. To be fair, it's understandable and a cool idea, however I wish they offered more then instant access to only 4 Battlemechs that you can unlock, I'd rather them give you 4 specialty Mechs that no one else will be able to get in order to sweeten the deal a bit more. I am not talking about any that are going to give you a sheer advantage over opponents either.

Congrats to the 8 fools who made the ignore list, your ignorance knows no bounds, bravo!

I guess this is Piranha's way of generating some early revenue for the game. To be fair, it's understandable and a cool idea, however I wish they offered more then instant access to only 4 Battlemechs that you can unlock, I'd rather them give you 4 specialty Mechs that no one else will be able to get in order to sweeten the deal a bit more. I am not talking about any that are going to give you a sheer advantage over opponents either.

The difference is founder's mechs get their own garage slot and custom schemes. So they don't count towards filling your 4 mech slots, and the color skins are founder-only.

I just dropped $120, which also includes a boatload of in-game currency.

The difference is founder's mechs get their own garage slot and custom schemes. So they don't count towards filling your 4 mech slots, and the color skins are founder-only.

I just dropped $120, which also includes a boatload of in-game currency.

In fact the bulk of it ($80) is in-game currency. But what do you get with that? They haven't shown anything in their store that makes it worth pre-purchasing. I'm surprised (but not really) at the amount of people jumping at the chance to throw money at beta access and some store cash for a currently non-existent store.

You shouldn't be supporting this business model.

^ The above should be taken with two grains of salt and a fistful of "chill the F* out".

In the FAQ for the question about clans the only answer is a smiley... But the game starts in 3049, correct? The start of the clan invasion. So they will obviously be part of the game somehow. Is there any word on this? (rumor, speculation, leak?) Seems to me for a game with 'no co-op' pve at start. Only pvp. The clans would either have to be the enemy for the eventual pve co-op (looting the superior clan tech), and/or a pay to win unlock??

it took a long time for me to recognise this game properly because you really have to doe RESEARCH to get any information about it. the community goes "jizz in ma pants" mode over every official post and screenshot.

but after spending hours searching for screens, videos, information, gameplay, battles, tech etc if was confident enough to go for elite status. as i really liked the mechwarrior games and am quite fond of the direction of the new game i look forward to the release (i don't like betas).

it has the potential to be one of the best f2p onlinegames out there (and i am normaly cynical and sceptical for everything on the inet).

EDIT: it has no pay to win mode. everything that influences the battles in any way can be bought with ingame currency. real money is only for optics and faster lvling/moneygain.

and giving out special or exclusive items or mechs for founders would be totally unfair for everyone joining the game later on. no thanks.

I paid $60 for a game which is really the standard going price. For $60 more I get more in-game money and xp (basically boas) 4 extra mech slots with founder-exclusive mechs. $80 worth of in-game currency. Yeah, I can't see the store yet. I don't see anything wrong with this business model.

Fact is, if you don't want to buy anything sight-unseen, you don't have to. You still get the game for free. What, exactly, is the problem here?

---------- Post added 2012-06-29 at 11:06 AM ----------

Originally Posted by openair

In the FAQ for the question about clans the only answer is a smiley... But the game starts in 3049, correct? The start of the clan invasion. So they will obviously be part of the game somehow. Is there any word on this? (rumor, speculation, leak?) Seems to me for a game with 'no co-op' pve at start. Only pvp. The clans would either have to be the enemy for the eventual pve co-op (looting the superior clan tech), and/or a pay to win unlock??

My guess would be the campaign focuses on the clans, while the MP focuses on the conflicts in the Inner Sphere with random events related to clans. For instance, if you've ever played rift, the random world events that happen? Yeah, like that. Total speculation here.

I paid $60 for a game which is really the standard going price. For $60 more I get more in-game money and xp (basically boas) 4 extra mech slots with founder-exclusive mechs. $80 worth of in-game currency. Yeah, I can't see the store yet. I don't see anything wrong with this business model.

Fact is, if you don't want to buy anything sight-unseen, you don't have to. You still get the game for free. What, exactly, is the problem here?

Well you just said it yourself: It's free to play.

So if it's really free to play, why are you being asked to drop as much as $120 on it sight unseen, weeks before you'll have even a single byte of data to show for it?

You should see a lot wrong with that business model. If it's worth paying for, let them prove it first. You shouldn't be throwing money at them already, they haven't given you a single god damn thing except empty promises. Please don't encourage that kind of game development.

^ The above should be taken with two grains of salt and a fistful of "chill the F* out".

There's plenty of videos on their website and more info in various places if you're willing to look, I could hardly call it unseen (unless you're referring to said mechs). Personally it was recommended to be by someone in the CB whose opinion I trust, which is enough for me.

I don't see this business model as being any different than the usual pre-order / half a dozen special edition model that's used with most games these days. If you don't like it though, you're more than welcome to spend your money elsewhere, and as a bonus you could still play the game and re-evaluate when it comes out.

So if it's really free to play, why are you being asked to drop as much as $120 on it sight unseen, weeks before you'll have even a single byte of data to show for it?

You should see a lot wrong with that business model. If it's worth paying for, let them prove it first. You shouldn't be throwing money at them already, they haven't given you a single god damn thing except empty promises. Please don't encourage that kind of game development.

The only thing I can't see is the stuff you buy in-game. I love everything I've seen so far. I love that they've put all this work into it yet are making it free-to-play. I gave them my $120 because in my eyes they have earned it. I won't pay $60 for another CoD. I won't pay for MoP unless its good, I won't buy another Madden or NCAA football (haven't since 09), because those are just regurgitated crap (mop is more a wait-and-see).

But I WILL pay $120 for a well-made game from one of the best-known franchises in gaming history, made by an unselfish developer whose heart and soul has been ALL ABOUT this game since 2009.

I will support that all day every day, and we should all encourage that kind of development. Its not the business model you have a problem with, it seems. What you have a problem with is me spending my money.